Identifier: reptilesbirdspop00figu (find matches)
Title: Reptiles and birds : a popular account of the various orders; with a description of the habits and economy of the most interesting
Year: 1869 (1860s)
Authors: Figuier, Louis, 1819-1894 Gillmore, Parker
Subjects: Birds Reptiles
Publisher: Springfield, Mass. : W.J. Holland
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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ll round thecoast, and on the larger lakes, ponds, and estuaries. On the Saone, the gunners, accompanied by a boatman, taketheir places in a long, light, narrow, pointed boat, or punt, calleda fonrqnette. The two men, lying down in the bottom of the boat,are hidden by faggots placed in front of them, the muzzle of theduck-gun protruding through the faggots. Thus floating downthe river among the Ducks, they get an opportunity of shoot-ing them without being perceived. Sportsmen in France some-times employ a very odd artifice to bafile the suspicious instinctof these birds : a man disguises himself as a cow by means of anoutline of the animal roughly made of common cardboard. Underfavour of this disguise he gets near the Wild Ducks withoutexciting their fears, if only aware how to make good use of hisdevice; that is, if he describes gentle and graceful curves, so as toadvance gradually without alarming the timid Palmipedes. Butthis sport, though productive enough when skilfully managed.
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THE DOMESTIC DUCK. 241 is not unattended with danger. A sportsman, wlio had dressedhimself up in this disguise, happened inadvertently to find his wayamong a herd of cattle, which, detecting the imposture, immediatelyran at him and chased him about the meadow. He thought himselffortunate in escaping with the loss of his disguise, which he aban-doned to the fury of his horned assailants. Large numbers of Ducks are taken by means of nets and varioussnares, which want of space prevents us from here enumerating. The Domestic Duck, Anas domestica, is a descendant of the WildDuck, or, as some think, of the Shoveller. The first tame Duck,the ancestor of a family since so prodigiously multiplied, probablyproceeded from an egg which had been taken from some reedymarsh, and hatched under a Hen. The Duck, however, has been reduced to a state of domesticityfrom a very remote period, and has been of incalculable utility tomankind, filling in our poultry-yards no unworthy place. Duckseggs are a who

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